Everett bounced by my side as we walked to my house. He hopped on all the leaves scattered across the pavement, getting especially excited whenever one crackled under his boots. Many of them were limp and long dead now, so it was rare to hear a crunch. The trees have been bare for weeks.
"I'm finally going to your house," he said. His hat had dumb floppy ears on it, flapping everytime he jumped about.
"Yeah, it's been busy lately."
We'd had to reschedule a couples times after getting some last minute orders following the strawberry brownies. Everett's dad had told us that the client said all her friends at the gathering had wanted our contact after tasting them.
Everett tripped over a pebble somehow and I slipped an arm around his waist before he could faceplant on the asphalt. "Hey, stop bouncing." I nodded to my driveway. "Look we're here."
"Ooh." Everett bounded up ahead as I checked the mail box. Still nothing.
I fished the extra key from my pocket as I came up behind him, unlocking the door. Jamie's singing assaulted us as soon as we entered, the sound pervading from the kitchen. I shrugged off my jacket, taking Everett's as well to hang up.
"Hey where's the bathroom?" he asked, pulling off his fluffy hat.
I pointed it out. "Right there. I'll be in the kitchen."
I made my way through the hall, the grating, out of tune sound only getting worse as I threw open the door.
"Hey!" Jamie already had the pile of letters spread out on the table. "Is he here?"
"Yeah, he's—" I paused, craning my neck as I looked through the envelopes. They were all just bills.
"I just finished another baking order," I said, pulling out a small envelope of cash.
"Don't worry about that," Jamie said dismissively, "Mom still guiltily sends money every month; it's more than enough to cover all this."
I picked through the envelopes. "Still haven't heard back from that place."
"You know, if the student loan doesn't come through you can just ask her—"
I shook my head to cut her off. "I don't want to ask mom for college tuition."
"It's not a big deal, you know she paid for mine too."
I glanced back at the sound of the door clicking open, a smile replacing my worried frown. "Hey."
"Hey, you must be Everett," Jamie greeted, "I've heard a lot about you."
Everett beamed, his smile lighting up the cold, cloudy day. "Hi Jamie."
I pulled out a chair for him. "You want something to drink?"
"Ah, no—"
"Hot chocolate?"
"Yes," he quickly amended.
Jamie chuckled. "Me too! If you're making."
The water in the kettle was still hot. I grabbed three mugs and the Cadbury hot chocolate powder. Jamie started asking Everett about the cafe as I stirred the drinks. I quickly put them down on the table when she started pressing for information on our relationship.
"Clementine." She threw me a pointed glance. "I was just asking your boyfr—"
My mug wobbled and nearly spilled over my shirt. "Woah, uh."
"Hey, careful with that." Everett's fingers brushed against mine as he helped me balance it. I felt my cheeks heating up as Jamie openly stared at us.
"Clementine, why don't you show Everett around?" she suggested, throwing me a surreptitious look, "You can show him your room, you have some movies downloaded on your laptop right? Take your hot chocolate and go."
Jamie waggled her brows at me and I shot her a glare for her way-too-obvious efforts. She was still under the impression that I hadn't actually asked him out. And I hadn't but like- we were dating! I was like 99% sure that was the same as being boyfriends. Everett was just teasing me.
Everett grinned, seeming to catch on to what was going on. "I'd like to see your room, Clementine."
"Uh, sure." I held my mug carefully as I got up. "It's upstairs."
Jamie threw me a wink behind Everett's back, mouthing something along the lines of 'ask him out.' I ignored her.
"Your sister seems really nice," Everett commented as I led him down the hall.
"She's alright," I muttered, opening the door and gesturing half-heartedly. "Here's my room."
Everett's head turned in all directions, taking in the bare desk and empty white walls. "It's really...neat."
"I haven't really made my bed." I tugged at the bottom of the bedspread as he sat down.
"I don't think people should be making their beds," he confided in me, "It's a pointless task."
"It is, right? And I don't really leave it when I'm at home."
"It's comfy." He flopped back on the pillows. "Hey you have stickers!"
I lay down beside him and looked up at the glow-in-the-dark stickers on my ceiling. "I used to be scared of the dark," I admitted, "It was a long time ago, but I never took them down."
"I like them." He smiled. "They feel more like you than anything else in here."
"Jamie helped me stick them up. It was um, after my dad left. And mom wasn't home most nights so it was just the two of us." I swallowed as Everett turned to me. "The house just seemed really big and empty when it got dark...but she got me these stickers to light up the room."
Everett's eyes were wide and shiny, lighting up the room much brighter than the stickers ever did. "That must've been lonely."
I tugged at one of his black curls. "I wasn't alone." I loved how his curls spilled over my pillow. "You mentioned earlier that...it was kind of lonely when you got home from school."
"Oh...that." He glanced away as if it didn't really matter after what I had just said. "It's not a big deal, just usual only child stuff."
"I still want to hear about it." I tilted his face towards me, my index finger trailing the side of his jaw. "I'm not going to compare it to my childhood and say it wasn't shitty enough or anything." I smiled.
He laughed lightly. "Well it wasn't shitty, just kind of lame. I used to make up imaginary siblings." His fingers entwined with mine, our hands resting between us. "My parents were there, they were just really busy with the cafe when it first started. I was bored."
"Did you make up a brother or a sister?" I asked, "And older or younger?"
"Ze was sometimes a brother and sometimes a sister- kind of fluid. Older than me."
"Wait your imaginary sibling used ze/zyr pronouns?" I asked in surprise, "Were you aware of those?"
"I dunno, I haven't spoken about zem to anyone till now so I didn't think about pronouns." He wrapped his pinky around mine. "It wasn't cute by the way, this imaginary sibling lasted till I was really old."
I laughed, bringing his hand closer to kiss the side of his knuckle. "I still think it's cute."
His hands were soon replaced by his lips, pressing against mine, slow and deep. My fingers tangled in the curls on my pillow, tracing over the shape they took when they lay in loose spirals. Starry eyes peeked up from under the lashes tickling my cheek.
Everett's gaze slid to the closed door. "Should we lock that?"